The real class war

It would be cheaper to place them on Christmas Island. Cheaper still to place them in camps on the mainland and much cheaper to place them in the community and give them the right to work while their refugee claims are being assessed.

To add insult to injury, a further $224 million has again been taken from Australia's foreign aid. As Robin Davies points out:

In the 2015 budget, for financial year 2015-16, Australia's aid was cut by A$1 billion – a massive 20%. ...

The big drop in Australia's generosity is not merely a relative one. It has much more to do with Australia's cuts than with other countries' increases. Between 2012 and 2016, Australia's foreign aid as a share of national income has fallen steeply from 0.36% to 0.23%.

Despite our excessive bastardry overseas the budget does not totally ignore the poor here for as ANU Professor Peter Whiteford says:

Also built into the forward estimates is a range of savings measures that have not yet been passed by the Senate. These include cuts to family payments for low-income families, reductions in Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme concessions, the higher age pension eligibility age, the one-month waiting period for young people to access income support, and lower payments for many young unemployed people.

These policies of infinite wisdom mainly stem from the 2014 budget.

What is the wash-up?

From Malcolm Fraser to Malcolm Turnbull every Liberal Prime Minister has repeatedly told us that Australia has to live within our means. They frequently suggest that there is a direct comparison between a household budget and the federal budget.

Morrison in his 2016 budget laid out a blueprint for dropping company tax to 25% by 2026. But the budget papers did not reveal what such magnanimity towards the big end of town would cost. David Speers, political editor of Sky News, asked the Prime Minister what such largesse would cost over the ten years. Turnbull refused to provide an estimate but insisted it was affordable because the budget predicted a return to surplus by 2021. The secretary of the Treasury, John Fraser, told the Senate estimates hearing on the 6^th May that Treasury thought the cost of the company tax cuts would cost $48.2 billion.

Several other economists have suggested amounts well in excess of $50 billion. More alarmingly there have been reports that:

The world's second biggest rating agency has once again cast doubt on the government's promised return to budget surplus, projecting a debt and deficit blowout as the cost of federal spending programs overwhelms tax revenue.

It is important to realise that since the global recession rocked our 2010 budget treasurers have been claiming to be about to return the budget to surplus but have not succeeded in doing so.

Morrison and Turnbull have both claimed we have a spending problem and that we don't need to raise the level of net tax. But when it comes to 12 new submarines or strike fighters rounding up the readies is not a problem. Likewise overly generous tax cuts for business presents no problem. Allowing the well-off to continue to rort negative-gearing – that's the way we protect the perks of the well-off.

But when it comes to hospitals, dental health, nursing homes, social security, community services, schools, universities and homes for the homeless that is where we have to watch our pennies.